Steamboat rehab center sued by similarly named Alabama facility

The Foundry is accused of trademark infringement, counterfeiting

A religious-based alcohol rehabilitation center in Alabama has sued a Steamboat Springs drug and alcohol rehabilitation center led by a Columbine survivor, claiming it intentionally used a similar name to profit from its well-established reputation.

The Foundry Ministries Inc., a faith-based nonprofit formed in Bessemer, Ala., filed the lawsuit Monday in Denver U.S. District Court, accusing The Foundry LLC, located at 30785 Colorado 131 in Steamboat Springs, of trademark infringement, counterfeiting and false advertising.

The lawsuit, filed by Denver attorneys J. Aaron Atkinson and Douglas Griess, seeks a court injunction preventing the Steamboat Springs rehabilitation center from using its name, The Foundry, which closely resembles the Alabama center’s name.

But Austin Eubanks, who was shot in the knee during the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, said administrators of The Foundry knew nothing about The Foundry Ministries in Alabama and they intend to fight the trademark lawsuit in court.

“We are definitely confident in our position. Their trademark does not include, specifically, addiction treatment services,” Eubanks said Tuesday.

The Alabama nonprofit, which has treated thousands of people from Colorado and 27 other states for more than 10 years, is seeking “all of defendant’s profits or gains of any kind,” attorneys fees and triple damages. It also asks for a court order declaring that the Steamboat Springs business, which opened in 2015, “unfairly competed.”

The Foundry Ministries of Alabama provides classes to people released from incarceration who are in recovery from drug or alcohol addiction, the lawsuit said.

“Defendant’s acts are deliberate and intended to confuse the public as to the source of defendant’s services and to injure plaintiff and reap the benefit of plaintiff’s goodwill … ,” the lawsuit says. The Alabama company has received calls from confused clients, it says.

But Eubanks said The Foundry in Steamboat Springs is a longterm addiction treatment center available to clients of all backgrounds.

“We are nothing like that,” said Eubanks, referring to Alabama ministry’s focus on convicts.

The website for The Foundry of Steamboat Springs says the company name is rooted in the background of Scott Borden, The Foundry’s CEO and financial backer, whose grandfather bought a metal foundry in Indiana in 1911.

On the center’s website, Borden describes having seen similarities between the process of melting scrap metal and defect castings into a useful product.

“Addicts show up to our facility, written off as ‘damaged goods’ or castoffs, like those old pieces of scrap metal. We tell them, ‘You only have to change one thing and that is everything.’ Then we introduce them to all of the new tools they’re going to use, including the Twelve Steps, which provide principles necessary to build a foundation from which their new way of life can begin,” Borden wrote in an online description called “our story.”

The Foundry of Steamboat Springs has had its own media attention, primarily related to Eubanks’ background. Eubanks’ friend Corey DePooter was killed along with 11 other Columbine High School students and a teacher. Eubanks turned to opioids to cope and became addicted. He is now in recovery.